Chapter 546: The Qiangu Grass Has Bloomed

After dinner, Xia Qing took Sick Wolf for a few laps around the territory; once they got back and she finished her physical training, she began seriously watching the strength-evolver training videos Yan Long had given her.

What Yan Long gave her was not a single video, but a whole series — covering strength-training techniques, points of caution for strength evolvers, nutritional supplements, and more.

Yang Jin had also tracked down part of this material, but what Yan Long gave her was military special-training material, so it was more professional and comprehensive.

Sick Wolf obediently lay beside Xia Qing, watched for a while, then closed his eyes. Ram Boss didn't want to watch either, but Xia Qing dragged him into studying anyway. "Boss, you're a strength evolver too, you have to study. We've got to have the research spirit of the Broken-Waist Wolf, constantly improving ourselves…"

Out of consideration for tonight's fairly tasty leaves, although Ram Boss was annoyed he didn't shake Xia Qing's arm off hard; he grudgingly endured the noise, squinted, lay beside Xia Qing, and chewed his cud.

"High-quality protein, carbohydrates, healthy fats, premium water…"

Xia Qing recited the four categories of nutrients that strength evolvers should focus on supplementing as mentioned in the video. Premium water she had — where should she get the other three from? Xia Qing opened the data pack Yang Jin had sold her.

Magnetoreception was a newly discovered ability; related research was still in its early stages, and there was no material on it yet. Material on the other three ability systems was quickly found.

After finishing her reading, Xia Qing reached a conclusion: she had to raise chickens well, raise rabbits well, raise fish well; gather more Green Lantern nuts, hunt high-level evolved Green Lantern prey; and, even more importantly, farm well. All these foods were important sources of the nutrients she needed to maintain her strength-evolution ability level.

Among grain crops, four types of Green Lantern grains — soybeans, peanuts, rice, wheat, and corn — were extremely critical; they were an important source of premium protein and carbohydrates.

Her fields had half a mu of Green Lantern wheat planted; if all went well, in the second half of the year she could eat Green Lantern wheat flour ground from wheat she had grown herself.

The grain storage room held 6.8 jin of Green Lantern rice seeds and 40 jin of premium Yellow Lantern rice seeds; next month, these seeds could be sent to the Hidden Valley for seedling cultivation.

Xia Qing had 3,950 Green Lantern soybean seeds. Some of these seeds were ones Xia Qing had traded with Li Si for eggs; others were compensation that Zhang San, after tamed beasts from Territory Nine broke into Territory Three and were captured by Xia Qing, had stepped forward to demand from Territory Nine. Close to four thousand seeds — even if only a third survived to flowering and seeding, by autumn Xia Qing would be able to eat Green Lantern soybeans.

As for Green Lantern corn: besides the six jin of Y-3 Green Lantern corn seeds Xia Qing had obtained by trading with Tan Junjie, she also had the 9 cultivable, optimizable corn plants she had detected this year in her Yellow Lantern cornfield, which had produced 6 Green Lantern corn cobs. If this year's harvest was good, the grain produced from planting these seeds would be enough for her to eat.

As for nuts. Her Zone Three had Green Lantern chestnut trees and Green Lantern torreya trees; Mountain Fifty had Green Lantern pine trees — all very stable nut sources.

The territory of the wolf pack on Mountain Sixty, according to Yang Jin, also had a very large walnut tree, but that place was guarded by a wolf pack, so he couldn't test its quality.

Although Yang Jin couldn't test it, Xia Qing guessed it might be Yellow Lantern. Because the walnuts the Broken-Waist Wolf occasionally brought Xia Qing as a "souvenir gift" were Yellow Lantern.

After she ran through in her mind the inventory of the two underground storerooms and the Green Lantern and Yellow Lantern foods collectable within her mountain domain, Xia Qing felt thoroughly reassured.

When she stretched and turned her head to look, she realized both companions had already fallen asleep.

Xia Qing went upstairs, took out from the refrigerator the precious potion she had just traded from her idol today, quickly drank 1 milliliter herself, then immediately drank a glass of water.

This medicine must have been extracted from bitter ginseng — it was bitter as death!

Xia Qing took another 1 milliliter from a different bottle, went downstairs and prepared a water basin, then pried open Sick Wolf's mouth and fed the liquid medicine to him with a syringe. "Lao Er, quick, drink some water."

Sick Wolf had long been used to Xia Qing feeding him medicine — not a single bit of resistance. After taking the medicine, when Xia Qing told him to drink water, he obediently lowered his head and took two sips.

Xia Qing was puzzled. "Lao Er, isn't your medicine bitter?"

Sick Wolf, with water droplets at the corner of his mouth, looked at Xia Qing, opened his mouth, and grinned happily.

Xia Qing smiled too, wiped his mouth for him. "It's nothing now, go to sleep. Keep an ear out for anything happening in the territory tonight — if anything seems off, wake me up."

Then Xia Qing explained to Ram Boss, who was watching her with open eyes: "This is a potion for repairing internal organ damage. Lao Er's organs were damaged by parasites and need repair; I also used to eat all kinds of random things, so I need repair too. Boss, you don't need to take medicine, because there's nothing wrong with your body at all."

This fellow grew up in the Evolution Forest, lost control once in the Qiangu Rain, and could still maintain Green Lantern quality — his body was so healthy it made Xia Qing envious.

After Xia Qing finished explaining, Ram Boss might not have understood, but he got that Xia Qing wasn't going to feed him anything, and closed his eyes to sleep again.

Xia Qing added firewood to the fireplace, checked the various cameras in the territory and on Mountain Fifty through her phone, confirmed everything was normal everywhere, told Sick Wolf to keep watch over the territory, and went upstairs to sleep.

Lying in the warm quilt, whether or not it was psychological, Xia Qing felt very comfortable, as if the potion she had drunk was truly slowly healing the terribly ravaged internal organs from her ten years of disaster.

"Truly miraculous."

The Qiangu Grass, only fist-sized, had somehow pushed out two flower-swords over ten centimeters long from its cluster of leaves, with seven small white flowers blooming at the tip of each flower-sword. Because the Qiangu Grass's leaves and stems were both colorless and transparent, at first glance it looked as if these fourteen little flowers were blooming suspended in midair.

Yang Jin shone his flashlight on these little flowers and couldn't help exclaiming again, "Xia Qing, you're really amazing."

Xia Qing, squatting beside him, tilted her chin up slightly. That this older sister is amazing — you don't need to say it!

Yang Jin carefully observed the Qiangu Grass's growing environment and noticed something different. "These crushed stones under the Qiangu Grass — did you just add them?"

"Mm, that's a nutrient mix made from Yishi granules and high-Yishi elemental soil blended together." The Yishi granules weren't only made from the Yishi scooped up from the Hidden Valley pool — they also included the Yishi from the food storage room, the refrigerator, and the ones Xia Qing, Ram Boss, and Sick Wolf had worn that had already lost their effect.

Yang Jin understood. "I'll bring over my used-up Yishi, to make the nutrient soil for this batch of Qiangu Grass seeds."

What is it called understanding what people say? What is it called being quick on the uptake? This is it!

Xia Qing nodded. "Thanks for your hard work, Captain Yang."

"No trouble at all — this is our shared enterprise." Yang Jin's face started heating up again; he didn't dare shift his gaze from the Qiangu Grass to Xia Qing's face.

Xia Qing's attention was entirely on the Qiangu Grass; she didn't notice at all that Yang Jin's ears had turned red again. "Captain Yang, there's something I'd like to discuss with you."